Politics

• Thursday, October 11th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Venezuelans to pay price of president's moral crusade

  

  President Hugo Chávez has announced sharp tax increases on tobacco and alcoholic beverages, amid a raft of other measures aimed at curbing luxury imports and instilling the new morality of his ''21st Century Socialism.''

• Thursday, October 11th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  UK invites Argentina to jointly work in seabed extension

  

  The United Kingdom reiterated in an open letter published Thursday in the Buenos Aires press its willingness to collaborate with Argentina in continental shelf extension presentations contemplated under the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

• Thursday, October 11th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  British activist Doris Lessing wins Nobel for literature

  

  British writer, Iran born, Doris Lessing won the 2007 Nobel Prize in literature, the Swedish Academy announced Thursday citing her “skepticism, fire and visionary power” in dozens of works, notably her classic “The Golden Notebook.”

• Thursday, October 11th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Global education spending concentrated in few rich countries

  

  A new publication by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) shows that global spending on education is concentrated in just a few countries, with the education budget of a single country like France or Italy outweighing education spending across all of sub-Saharan Africa.

• Thursday, October 11th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina military running short of officers and servicemen

  

  Low unemployment, poor salaries and an overall political hostility climate towards the military in recent years have combined to see the Argentine Armed Forces recruitment fall drastically.

• Wednesday, October 10th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Rice defends free trade pacts with Latam countries

  

  United States Congress would deliver a “great blow” to Peru, Panama and Colombia, as well as damage U.S. interests in Latin America, if it fails to pass free-trade agreements with the three countries, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, October 10th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentine anti pulp mill activists marches banned in Uruguay

  

  Uruguay will ban Argentine activists who oppose a pulp mill in Fray Bentos, from marching or organizing concentrations so as to avoid provocations, announced Minister of Interior Daisy Tourné.

• Tuesday, October 9th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  UN court awards Honduras sovereignty of disputes cays

  

  The United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded Honduras sovereignty over four cays in the Caribbean Sea and delineated its maritime boundary with Nicaragua as part of a ruling on the long-running border dispute between the two Central American countries.

• Tuesday, October 9th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Bachelet opens Latam-European social forum in Chile

  

  President Michelle Bachelet opened the 8th annual Biarritz Forum Monday with a speech urging unity across Chile's social and political sectors. The President welcomed business leaders and government officials from across Latin America and Europe to the annual conference, held this year at the Casa de Piedra in Santiago's Vitacura borough.

• Tuesday, October 9th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentine Dirty War priest sentenced to life imprisonment

  

  A court in Argentina on Tuesday sentenced a former Roman Catholic police chaplain to life imprisonment for collaborating in murders during the country's military dictatorship. Christian Von Wernich, 69, was convicted for involvement in seven murders, 42 abductions and 31 cases of torture during the 1976-83 “Dirty War”.